Eugene Roche

Eugene Harrison Roche (September 22, 1928 – July 28, 2004) was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television over five decades. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the son of Mary M. (née Finnegan) and Robert F. Roche, who was serving in the U.S. Navy at the time of his birth. Following his high school graduation, Roche served in the U.S. Army before beginning his professional acting career in 1953.

Roche made his Broadway debut in 1961 in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, appearing alongside Darren McGavin. Over the next four years, he accumulated additional Broadway credits, including Mother Courage and Her Children with Anne Bancroft in 1963, The White House with Helen Hayes in 1964, Great Day in the Morning, and All in Good Time, with his Broadway career extending through 1965.

On screen, Roche became widely recognized for his comedic television work. He appeared as Pinky Peterson, one of Archie Bunker's companions, in multiple episodes of All in the Family, and held recurring roles on Soap, Webster, and Perfect Strangers, where he played Larry Appleton's abusive boss. He also recurred as Christine Sullivan's father on Night Court. Beyond comedy, Roche took on dramatic supporting parts that frequently cast him as outwardly ordinary men concealing ruthlessness or menace. He played a corrupt police officer who attempts to kill Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, appeared in two episodes of Kojak, and portrayed a criminal mastermind disguised as a Catholic bishop in the 1978 film Foul Play. He appeared in five episodes of Magnum, P.I. as old-style private investigator Luther Gillis, made two appearances on Airwolf in separate roles, and played the alien Jor Brel in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Remember."

His film work included a notable performance as a prisoner of war in Slaughterhouse Five (1972), as well as supporting roles in The Late Show (1977), Foul Play (1978), and Corvette Summer (1978). Outside of dramatic roles, Roche became broadly familiar to American audiences as the Ajax dishwasher spokesman in a long-running series of television commercials and print advertisements during the 1970s.

In his personal life, Roche married Marjory Perkins in 1953. The couple had nine children, among them actor Eamonn Roche and Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Sean Roche. Following their 1981 divorce, he married Anntoni C. Roche (née Bratman) in 1982 and remained married to her until his death. Roche died on July 28, 2004, at a hospital in Encino, California, from a heart attack at the age of 75.